European Women's Hockey League

The European Women's Hockey League (EWHL), formerly the Elite Women's Hockey League, is an international competition for different European women's ice hockey clubs. Created in 2004 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the EWHL consists from several countries in Central Europe and is played in parallel to national championships.

Logo since 2019

History

The EWHL was created in 2004 on the same principle as the Interliga (men's ice hockey). For its first season, the EWHL featured teams from Austria, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. During the following seasons, women's teams from Slovakia (2005), Croatia (2006) and the Czech Republic (2007) joined the league. In 2008, the Italian and Hungarian teams gave way to two clubs from Germany. From the 2010–11 to 2011–12 seasons, the Netherlands women's national ice hockey team participated in the EWHL.[1] Before the 2019–20 season, the Elite Women's Hockey League was renamed, becoming the European Women's Hockey League to reflect its unique position within European women's hockey.[2] Also, the Poland women's national ice hockey team joined the league in 2019, playing as the Silesia Brackens.[3]

The EWHL was mostly played in a championship format with home and away matches, with the exception of the 2005–06 season where the teams were distributed in two regional divisions followed by qualifying rounds. For the 2010–11 season, the regular season will be followed by a play-off between the four teams at the top of the league table.

Season 2019–20

• EHV Sabres
• DEC Salzburg Eagles
• Neuberg Highlanders
• Lakers Kärnten
• KMH Budapest
• MAC Budapest
• EV Eagles Südtirol
• Aisulu Almaty
• Silesia Brackens
• HK Olimpija Ljubljana

Championship

Years	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Teams
2004	EHV Sabres	HK Terme Maribor	HC Agordo	8
2005–06	HC Slovan Bratislava	HK Terme Maribor	HC Eagles Bolzano	11
2006–07	HC Slovan Bratislava	EC Ravens Salzburg	HK Terme Maribor	12
2007–08	HC Slavia Praha	EC Ravens Salzburg	EHV Sabres	11
2008–09	HC Slavia Praha	OSC Berlin	ESC Planegg	8
2009–10	ESC Planegg	EC Ravens Salzburg	EHV Sabres	6
2010–11	EHV Sabres	HC Slovan Bratislava	ESC Planegg	8
2011–12	EHV Sabres	HC Slovan Bratislava	HK Pantera Minsk	6
2012–13	HK Pantera Minsk	EHV Sabres	DEC Salzburg Eagles	6
2013–14	EV Bolzano Eagles	Neuberg Highlanders	EHV Sabres	7
2014–15	EHV Sabres	EV Bolzano Eagles	DEC Salzburg Eagles	6
2015–16	EHV Sabres	DEC Salzburg Eagles	Aisulu Almaty	7
2016–17	EV Bolzano Eagles	DEC Salzburg Eagles	HC ŠKP Bratislava	8
2017–18	EHV Sabres	EV Eagles Südtirol	KMH Budapest	8
2018–19	KMH Budapest	EHV Sabres	EV Eagles Südtirol	9
2019–20	KMH Budapest	MAC Budapest	Aisulu Almaty	10

Medal table by Club

#	Club	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Medals
1	EHV Sabres	6	1	3	10
2	HC Slovan Bratislava/HC ŠKP Bratislava	2	2	1	5
3	HC Slavia Praha	2	0	0	2
4	EV Bolzano Eagles/EV Eagles Südtirol	1	2	1	4
5	KMH Budapest	2	0	1	3
6	ESC Planegg	1	0	2	3
7	HC Eagles Bolzano	1	0	1	2
-	HK Pantera Minsk	1	0	1	2
9	DEC Salzburg Eagles/EC Ravens Salzburg	0	5	2	7
10	HK Terme Maribor	0	2	1	3
11	OSC Berlin	0	1	0	1
12	Aisulu Almaty	0	0	2	2
13	HC Agordo	0	0	1	1
-	MAC Budapest	0	0	1	1

See also

• EWHL Super Cup
• Austria women's ice hockey Bundesliga
• German women's ice hockey Bundesliga
• Switzerland women's ice hockey league

References

1. The Netherlands wishing to offer more competitive matches to their top Women players. Source: EWHL Website
2. "EWHL-Premiere in Sterzing" (in German). EVB Hockey Academy. 8 September 2019.
3. "Three Polish national teams to play in foreign leagues". Polish Puck. 27 June 2019.

• This article incorporates information from the French and German Wikipedias.

External links

• EWHL News in English
• (German) EWHL Website
• (German) European Women's Hockey Journal